Master Airspace Mgmt Plan Being Finalised

New Delhi, September 29: | Updated: Sep 30 2003, 05:30am hrs

Indian Air Force and Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are developing a master plan on airspace management to expand the airspace for greater civilian traffic over major airports in the country by partially opening defense airspace.

We are looking at sharing of airspace with civil aviation. In three months, trials can begin at airports like Hyderabad and Bangalore where there is heavy traffic. We can expand the airspace by 15 to 20 per cent, Chief of Air Staff S Krishnaswamy told reporters here on Monday.

He said air traffic controllers of the Air Force and civilian side would sit together to work out the finer details on the flexibility of airspace management.

Stating that small countries like Singapore and South Africa had increased air traffic considerably through such an exercise, he said a lot of airspace was lying unutilised, and can be used to enhance civilian air traffic.

Director general of civil aviation Satinder Singh said substantial progress had been made on this front but declined to give details on grounds of security.